Wall Street Journal (04/13/12) Conor Dougherty
Last week’s rise in new claims for unemployment
benefits—in combination with other weak reports on hiring,
automobile sales, and small-business sentiment—has
observers concerned that the labor market may be softening. The
various reports suggest that strong job growth data reported
earlier in the year were partially due to an unusually warm
winter, which can boost employment for construction and other
seasonal work. More troubling is that the data indicating strong
early-year job growth followed by weaker spring growth is similar
to a pattern seen in 2011.